Users of the Internet benefi t from a stream of continuously emerging innovations in applications and services. These innovations give rise to a need for faster and more precise data transmission, which requires investments and innovations by network operators. Certain innovations, such as Quality of Service (QoS) and the labeling of individual data packets (packet shaping), help operators to raise the priority of a certain data fl ow or limit the priority of another fl ow. Such technologies may support the provision of applications that are time-sensitive (e.g. voice), or that require high bandwidth (e.g. video) or a higher level of security (e.g. e-commerce).
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